University of Reading Professor of Classics Eleanor Dickey ’89, M.A. ’89, has been elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.

This prestigious award reflects Dickey’s standing as a leader in the field of Latin and Greek languages and linguistics.

The British Academy is the U.K.’s national body that champions and supports the humanities and social sciences. This year the Academy elected 42 highly distinguished U.K. academics in recognition of their outstanding research.

Dickey has published more than 80 scholarly works, including four monographs, which have revealed a fascinating insight into life in the ancient world. Her most recent book, The Colloquia of the Hermeneumata Pseudodositheana, concerns one of the Western world’s oldest surviving children’s books. This ancient textbook was designed to help Latin speakers learn Greek and Greek speakers learn Latin.

Dickey has reconstructed the ancient textbook from medieval manuscripts and fragments of ancient papyri and translated it into English. The text is a priceless insight into daily life in the Roman Empire, containing school scenes and dialogues illustrating shopping, banking, bathing, and dining.

Dickey joined the University of Reading in 2013; she has previously taught at the University of Ottawa in Canada and Columbia University in New York.